Who’s Responsible for Bombing Near Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital?

As the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues to intensify in the Gaza Strip, so too does the battle over information. Case in point: a strike that landed in a park near Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital on Monday.

The attack, which reportedly killed 10 Palestinians, nine of them children, occurred at five P.M. The Israel Defense Forces released a statement fingering Palestinian rockets in the attack:

“A short while ago Al-Shifa hospital was struck by a failed rocket attack launched by Gaza terror organizations. A barrage of three rockets that were aimed towards Israel, struck the hospital. At the time of the incident there was no Israeli military activity in the area surrounding the hospital whatsoever.”

But NBC staff, including Ayman Mohyeldin, the reporter who was sent back to Gaza after being replaced by Richard Engel, say otherwise. “Early reports from the ground had said an Israeli drone appeared responsible for the attack,” NBC’s report on the incident now reads. (An earlier version of the same article, as captured and tweeted by a number of journalists, was more direct: “However, a NBC News journalist witnessed the attack on the hospital and said it had been fired by an Israeli drone.”)

On Twitter, Mohyeldin further disputed the I.D.F.’s version of events:

The official Twitter account for the I.D.F., @IDFSpokesperson, posted comments on the incident. “A short while ago, terrorists in Gaza fired rockets at Israel,” an I.D.F. tweet reads. “1 of them hit Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. The other hit Al-Shati refugee camp.”

Gaza’s Interior Ministry spokesperson told the Associated Press that he believes shrapnel found inside victims of the attack points to an Israeli strike. “This is an attempt to cover their ugly crime against children and civilians, and because of their fear of scandal and international legal prosecution,” Eyad al-Bozum, the spokesman, said. Hamas claimed the strike was “a massacre,” and said it fired rockets into Israel as retribution.

Tamer El-Ghobashy, a Wall Street Journal reporter, posted a photo from the scene and tweeted that the “low level damage suggests Hamas misfire.” (Note: El-Ghobashy deleted and reposted the photo, this time with the message, “Unclear what the origin of the projectile is.”)

This weekend, Israel rejected accusations that a Thursday shelling of a United Nations school killed 16 Palestinians. While he acknowledged that a mortar errantly hit the school, I.D.F. spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the schoolyard was empty at the time of the strike, and provided a 10-second video of what the I.D.F. claimed is the crash.

No one has been able to verify the veracity of the video, which also played a starring role in a curious Meet the Press segment on Sunday. During an interview with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (U.N.R.W.A.) spokesman Chris Gunness, host David Gregory showed the black-and-white video to his viewers.

“The Israeli government has released videotape within the past hour, it was posted on YouTube, NBC News hasn’t independently verified,” Gregory said. “The Israelis say—and I realize that you cannot see this video, our audience can, and I’m going to describe it to you—that purports to show rockets being fired from a U.N. school.”

Gunness, visibly upset at having to respond to an unverified video that he could not even see, described the move as “really unfair.” Later in the episode, Gregory issued a correction, reiterating that the video was unverified, and that the U.N. took issue with its relevance. “This is a back and forth that we are not able to settle at this point,” Gregory said.

Reuters correspondent Dan Williams tweeted Monday that rocket sirens were heard in Daliat al-Carmel, near Haifa, in Israel. Williams noted that any attack there “might signal the most northward rocket launch from Gaza.” Death tolls continued to climb, most dramatically in Gaza, where more than 1,059 people have been killed, as of Sunday. According to Unicef, at least 218 children were among the Palestinian victims. Four civilians and 43 Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Pope Francis spoke out against the conflict on Sunday. “Stop, please stop! I beg you with all my heart,” he said. “I think of the children, who are robbed of the hope of a dignified life, of a future. Dead children, wounded children, mutilated children, orphans, children who, for toys, have the debris of war. Children who do not know how to smile.”

“There is no war more just than this,” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday. "Bravery and determination are needed to fight a terror group which seeks our destruction. We must be prepared for a prolonged campaign.”

On Monday, amid further rocket fire into Israel, more Gaza residents were ordered to evacuate, suggesting a cessation of violence was not imminent.

We will update this post should more information regarding strikes near Al-Shifa hospital and/or the U.N.R.W.A. school become available.